Symantec partner caught running tech support scam

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3026243/security/symantec-partner-caught-running-tech-support-scam.html

By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld
Jan 25, 2016

Tech support scammers are known for their cheek -- making unfounded claims 
that PCs are infected to scare consumers into parting with their money -- 
but a Symantec partner took nerve to a new level, a security company 
claimed last week.

According to San Jose, Calif.-based Malwarebytes, Silurian Tech Support 
ran a scam in which its employees, who billed themselves as support 
technicians, used obscure but harmless entries in Windows' Event Viewer 
and Task Manager to claim that a PC had been overwhelmed by malware, then 
leveraged those bogus threats to sell overpriced copies of Symantec's 
Norton security software and an annual contract for follow-up phone 
support.

That tactic was a hoary one, often deployed by technical support scammers. 
So was the resulting outrageously-priced software and "support."

What was unusual about the scam was that the original bait for the scheme 
-- a browser pop-up -- was designed to look like an alert from Symantec's 
Norton Antivirus, including displaying the product's logo. More 
importantly, the scammer was an active Symantec partner, as Malwarebytes' 
senior security researcher Jerome Segura pointed out in a blog post last 
week.

Although tech support scammers frequently claim affiliations with the 
companies whose products they abuse in their cold calls and scary online 
pop-ups, it's rare that an actual partner with an established relationship 
dare pull such stunts.

[...]



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